Daily Notes On A Very Dark Moist Friday

 Thinking ahead to Actual Spring.  Which- here in Maine, is closer to June. Not March or April.

I used to make up boxes like these when I was working at the Greenhouse.  Multiples of two to 8 boxes- all identical.  It was fun.  I loved doing it.  Playing with colors and contrasts.  I don't do it here at home. The deer tend to eat it all overnight.  Usually the first night after I make the boxes.  A very expensive deer snack.  So- the Master Gardner has NO window boxes.  Those first mornings- after finding my boxes destroyed...gosh, I cried. And usually crawled back into bed, hating living here.

My daughter has a lovely and very very pretty yard.  And garden boxes.  She lives in Town about a 10 minute drive from my house.  No Deer.  And a big temperature difference. Warmer where she lives with people close by.  Colder out here.

I tried when we first got here.  To this house.  To have a beautiful yard.  It's a lovely yard (when viewed from the street) but mostly shrubs with flowers the deer don't eat and terrible grass.  Flowering trees in Spring.  Fenced in Hosta under the crab tree branches.  Soil here is very acidic.  Hard to grown anything other than white pines.  Which I hate. Most everything that we still have...is inside the fenced garden.  Can't really see any of it from the house. so..over the years...I just stopped planting anything there.  Mostly weedy grass now.  A few shrubs. A few rangy roses.  Herbs.  Grapes. Lilacs.  The rhubarb refuses to grow.

I grow almost everything on the driveway. in garden boxes  Which we can't see from any of the house windows. We can only see the stuff- while standing on the driveway. In the heat and Sun.  But not for long. Only while watering.  Breathing is a problem in the Summer. Outdoors. For me.

But this year we hope to get a new driveway.  So......we will not be having any garden boxes on the driveway.  Nor the back deck- the deer and chipmunks destroy deck plants.  The front porch is too cold and gets no direct Sun.  I just don't know.  It might be a Summer of buying produce from the Farmer's Market.  Unless, of course, we CAN'T schedule a new driveway.  Which, here in Maine...is entirely possible.